I saw the eviction sign too many times
And yet my home was just
No squatter’s house. I lived in her, painted her walls
Fired the furnace, repaired the split timber
Nailed little picture frames, square perimeters
Of sheer beauty.
I had overstayed my visit. Now I needed
To deracinate the tap root, a foundation
Of stone and sand. I was grappling with an exit sign
Hurting from an exit wound. I walked out
From a little door in front, unknowing I will never see again
The varnish on her timer, the feel of her walls
Nor the creaking sounds she makes
As I leave behind footsteps in time.
And now I was a homeless man.
A drifter of fate. Some driftwood.
Learning a lesson the hard way
That home is not just a walled enclosure
It is a cathedral of the heart.
And I learnt that I was no high priest, just a pilgrim
With no more prayers in my heart.
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Published by Curiosity-driven life (Dilantha Gunawardana)
Dr Dilantha Gunawardana graduated from the University of Melbourne, as a molecular biologist, and moonlights as a poet. He currently serves as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Botany, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Dilantha lives in a chimeric universe of science and poetry. Dilantha’s poems have been accepted for publication /published in HeartWood Literary Magazine, Canary Literary Magazine, Boston Accent, Forage, Kitaab, Eastlit, American Journal of Poetry, Zingara Poetry Review, The Wagon and Ravens Perch, among others. Dilantha too has two anthologies of poetry, 'Kite Dreams' (2016) and 'Driftwood' (2017), both brought to the readership by Sarasavi Publishers, and is working on his third poetry collection (The Many Constellations of Home). Dilantha’s pet areas of teaching and research, include, Nitrogen Fixation, RNA biology, Phytoremediation, Agricultural Biology, and Bioethics & Biosafety. Dilantha blogs at – https://meandererworld.wordpress.com/ -, where he has nearly 2000 poems.
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